"3-D gaming increases anger because the players felt more immersed in the violence when they played violent games," said Brad Bushman, co-author of the study and professor of communication and psychology at The Ohio State University.

The study involved 194 college students, about two-thirds of whom were women. All of the students played the video game Grand Theft Auto IV for 15 minutes. Half were instructed to play violently (kill as many people as possible in the game) and half played non-violently.

Results showed that for those who played non-violently, it did not matter if they played in 2-D or 3-D their levels of anger were relatively low and unchanged.

Those who played violently showed higher levels of anger than non-violent players no matter how they played, 2-D or 3-D.

But those who played violently on 3-D were significantly angrier than those who played violently on the 2-D systems.

"The combination of violent content and immersive technology like 3-D can be troublesome," Bushman concluded.

The study is forthcoming in the journal Psychology of Popular Media Culture.